#115 - Mike Knoop and Kevin Hale

Mike Knoop is cofounder and Chief Product Officer at Zapier, which was in the YC Summer 2012 batch. Zapier moves information between your web apps automatically.Kevin Hale is a Visiting Partner at YC. Before YC Kevin was the cofounder of Wufoo, which was funded by YC in 2006 and acquired by SurveyMonkey in 2011.You can find Mike on Twitter at @mikeknoop and Kevin at @ilikevests.The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.***Topics00:43 - Kevin's intro01:03 - Mike's intro2:03 - How Mike and Kevin met4:03 - Market sizing for consumer software5:13 - Zapier's growth strategy today vs 20126:28 - Jumpstarting a platform like Zapier9:03 - Building an app directory before building a product11:03 - Applying to YC twice13:23 - Zapier after Demo Day14:48 - Zapier's first remote hire16:48 - Remote companies not being perceived as legitimate18:48 - Noticing remote was working then committing21:28 - Qualities to look for when hiring remote employees24:28 - Nina Mehta asks - What’s the best way to share work and knowledge across designers working on different parts of product without distracting from focused working time?25:58 - Remote mistakes in the early days27:33 - When to change modes of communication to allow for deep work29:28 - When to ask for someone's full attention31:33 - Product and design practices at Zapier34:38 - OKRs for teams vs individuals39:48 - Tools for remote teams43:48 - No internal email at Zapier46:53 - Keeping morale high in a remote team49:28 - What happens at a Zapier retreat51:43 - Remote design critiques56:43 - Serendipity and over optimizing for it58:33 - Setting up a remote company for success